a. abandoned man to his dreadful sins by
speaking words of eternal doom.b. buoyed our first parents up with the
hope of salvation by promising redemption.c. was hidden and silent so that man could
not find him for a very long time.

Read Gen 3:15. The Church sees in this verse God's promise to our first
parents. God immediately continues to reveal himself to them even after
their Fall. God promises that the ''seed'' of the woman (mankind descended
from Eve) will eventually gain the victory over the powers of evil.

A further and the fullest meaning in this passage is typological and thus
relates to Christ. In fact this passage is called the ''Protoevangelium''
(''first gospel''). [CCC 410] Christ is the new man, the New Adam, who by
his obedience will superabundantly make up for Adam's disobedience and
thus decisively and forever defeat the powers of evil. Just as the Church
sees Christ present ''in the beginning,'' she sees God promise Adam and
Eve, immediately after the Fall, that Christ will come to deliver mankind
from death and all the other powers of evil.

Also, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman
announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary. [CCC 411] Christ is the ''seed''
of Mary, the new Eve. (Thus, there are many pictures and statues of Mary
crushing the head of a serpent under her heel). <<

Immediately after the Fall, what happens? After the first sin of Adam and
Eve, ''the world is virtually inundated by sin.'' [CCC 401] Read Gen 4:
1-16 to find out the very next thing recounted by Genesis as happening
after the Fall.

Next, Gen 4:17 - 6:10 describe the ''generations'' (the ancestors) of
Noah, which takes the story from Cain to Noah. Skim that passage now. Now
read Gen 6:11-12. In [CCC 401] the Holy Father and the bishops describe
the world as virtually ''inundated'' (flooded) with sin after the Fall.
(Flooded, get it? Apparently, even bishops make puns, if for a holy
purpose.) <<

The Old Testament documents God's desire for an intimate and unbreakable
relationship of love (a covenant) with man, in spite of man's repeated
rejections of God. Repeatedly God makes covenants with man. God made
covenants with all three men mentioned below. Who came first?

The waters of the flood, which brought death, also resulted in the
covenant of special closeness and life made by God with Noah and with all
living creatures. By the waters of Baptism which are poured over us, we
are baptized into Christ's death, which brings us union with him, and
eternal life.

Also, Noah releases a dove which returns with a sign that the earth was
again habitable. The Church sees in this dove a symbol of the Holy Spirit,
who again appears when Christ comes up from the waters of his baptism.

Noah himself has been seen as a type of Christ, the faithful man God
works through to save the world from death. <<

Here is one opinion about the literal sense of Gen 6:13 - 9:17. The
conclusion of the passage is the making of the covenant between God and
Noah, and this completes and gives the full meaning of the literal sense
of what came before. God promises that death, which flooded the whole
world on account of man's sins, will never be completely victorious.

The account thus reinforces the Protoevangelium. A man, Noah, defeats the
death threatening the whole world, by faithfully and obediently
cooperating with God's plans. Significantly, Genesis takes pains to show
that Noah can trace his lineage directly to Eve (thus, he is a man who
literally is a ''seed'' of the woman). However, and also very
significantly, Noah is not a pagan ''hero,'' a man who defeats death by
his own powers or actions. God alone does that.

Further, notice how great an emphasis is placed on establishing that Noah
and his kin were just a few people in an entire world otherwise utterly
given over to sin. Yet, small as their number was, God certainly noticed
them. Their faithfulness literally saved the world, and prompts even
greater tenderness from God, a tenderness that he extends far beyond Noah
to all men who come after him.

Noah, his faithfulness, and the covenant God made with him, are so
important that Gen 4:17 - 6:10 outlines the ''generations'' (all the
ancestors) of Noah. He and his ancestors live to immense ages, befitting a
family of long and continuing heroism and great faithfulness to God.
Notice also that God plainly makes a covenant not just with Noah but,
through him, with all men and even with all living beings. Noah's
faithfulness changes the whole world for the better.

So, how long does the covenant God made with Noah last? The Holy Father
and bishops united with him teach [CCC 71] that the covenant with Noah
remains in force until

a. the covenant with Abraham.b. the covenant with Moses.c. the end of time on the last day.

The covenant with Noah, which extends to all men and all living
creatures, remains in force until the Gospel, the New Covenant in Christ
which completes and fulfills all covenants, is universally proclaimed at
the end of time. [CCC 58] <<

a. the first two chapters of the gospel
according to St. Mathew.b. the account of Creation that makes up
the first two chapters of Genesis.c. the promise of redemption made to our
first parents after the Fall.

There are many religions whose initial assumption is that covenants
offered by God to man are unnecessary or even irrelevant. These religions
assume that if man is sufficiently clever, dedicated, nice, saintly,
sincere, etc., then man can draw near to God on his own. Please remember
that man can not draw near to God on his own. The Fall by our first
parents prevents this forever.

The covenants are not metaphors. They are not ''stories'' about how man
draws near to God under man's own power. They are the actual means by
which God reveals himself to man and offers an actual, intimate union with
himself to actual, living men. That is, in a mysterious way, if men draw
near to Christ, they have always and at all times done so in and through
the particular covenants that God has made.

Religions which implicitly assume that the particular covenants offered
by God to man are unnecessary for union with God are simply mistaken. The
one God, the Most Holy Trinity, has revealed himself as a personal God who
offers an intimate, personal union with himself to man through covenants.
The ''gods'' of other religions are, quite simply, not real. They do not
exist. The true God directly intervenes in history and offers specific,
particular covenants to man. >>

The Catholic Church professes that all of the covenants are completed and
given their full beauty and meaning in the New Covenant between Christ and
his Bride, the Catholic Church. In the New Covenant God reveals himself
completely and offers complete, intimate union with himself in and through
the particular intimate union between Christ and his Catholic Church.

In the fallen world the summit of this union is the sacrament of the
Eucharist. It is very important to remember that the sacraments, just like
the covenants, are not a metaphor for something else. Receiving our Lord
in the Eucharist is not a metaphor. In a mysterious but completely real
way you actually receive our Lord himself. You can not experience his
presence the way you will in heaven, but he is as close to you in the Host
as he would have been had you been walking right next to him in Galilee.
>>

Jesus Christ is the Father's full revelation of himself. ''Christ, the
Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word.
In him he has said everything: there will be no other word than this
one.'' [CCC 65]

In and through Christ's union with his Church, man now has the perfect
and complete covenant. Like all the covenants, it is particular - there
are no ''generic'' covenants. Yet unlike the other covenants, it is both
universal and complete. In the Eucharist man shares in the very life of
God, and thus can freely be in intimate union with God forever.

This union with God in and through the Eucharist is completely free.
Jesus forces no one to be close to him in his sacraments. But covenantal
union with God through the Eucharist is also completely real. As a
baptized Catholic, you have the possibility of a special intimacy with
Christ that God wishes all men to share. You may receive him in the Holy
Eucharist. <<

Read Gen 11:1-9. In [CCC 57] the Holy Father and the bishops teach that
God ''confused the languages of all the earth'' and thus prevented men
from building the tower and city of Babel because

a. God was divinely jealous of man's powers
and did not abide them.b. the truth is that man is not meant to
know the mysteries of God.c. the unity that fallen man can forge
entirely on his own is perverse.

Babylon was the capital of a great and powerful ancient empire. The
Babylonian ziggurat (a kind of giant pyramid with steps and an altar at
the top) may have been the model for the tower of Babel. (It also may not
have been). However, as the story itself makes clear, it was the building
of the entire city of false unity, not just the tower, that offended God.
Men ''left off building the city,'' not just the tower. <<